Book Title:
Chew On This: Bite-Sized Stories about Nutrition
Author:
Brooke Bussard, M.D.
Publishing Information:
Plants Over Animals, LLC, 2023
Link to Buy Book:
Synopsis:
With 12 entertaining chapters, readers are educated on important nutritional topics. From protein to carbs, and from fruits to leafy greens, current information is shared through conversations among the interesting characters. Using entertaining and imaginative characters, the effect of food choices on a person’s well-being are explained. Readers finish the book with the pertinent knowledge needed to eat for improved health.
Author Bio:
Dr. Brooke Bussard left traditional medicine to become a health educator and guide clients toward optimal wellness. She focuses on plant-based nutrition to reduce the risk of chronic lifestyle illnesses. She is the founder of Plants Over Animals and the author of Chew On This: Bite-Sized Stories about Nutrition.
Book Excerpt:
8
Milk
Important during infancy
Proud Pennie tells one of her puppies: “Just a few more weeks of milk for you, and then you’ll be ready for dry food.”
Playful Pico wags his tail: “Look how my teeth are coming in, Mom! I’m getting pretty good at chewing. I can’t wait to be independent.”
Mammals make milk for their babies and then wean their young to consume solid food as they get older. That is the natural biology of mammals.
From the hallway, Rashod shouts goodbye to his mom and sister who are sitting in the family room next to the litter of puppies.
Rashod’s sister, Roxy, pleads with their mom, Rachel: “They are SO cute. I wanna keep ‘em all!”
Rachel: “That would be quite a handful. Besides, your cousins already picked out the ones they want. We just need to wait for Pennie to stop nursing. Then each puppy can go to a new home once they are eating regular dog food.”
Roxy: “Will Pennie stop making milk for them?”
Rachel: “Yes, moms only make milk to feed newborns. Once babies get big enough, they don’t need the milk anymore because they get all their nutrition from solid food.”
Rashod arrives at the gym for a pre-season football workout. Zane and Braxton have started their dynamic warm-up and Rashod joins in. After ninety minutes of intense strength training, they cool down, shower, and head to the parking lot.
Zealous Zane grabs a banana from his gym bag and glances over at Rashod: “Dude, are you drinking chocolate milk?”
Rowdy Rashod raises one eyebrow and looks at his beverage, which is marketed toward bodybuilders: “Yeah, why?”
Zane shrugs: “Seems like a strange choice. Anyway, milk wrecks my stomach.”
Rashod: “Are you lactose-intolerant? Is that what it’s called?”
Buff Braxton stretches his hamstrings while oozing confidence: “Same thing happens to me, but my doctor said it’s totally normal. When we’re babies and we drink milk from our moms, that milk has lactose in it – a form of sugar. So we make an enzyme called lactase to break it down. Once babies are done nursing, there’s no need to make the enzyme anymore – unless they’re gonna keep drinking milk or eating dairy products like cheese and ice cream.”
Braxton flexes his right bicep and continues: “The enzyme, lactase, is a protein. If we don’t make it, then we have more amino acids to use for making other proteins instead – like actin and myosin in our muscles!”
Zane: “Yeah, I can’t eat nachos or ice cream without getting a stomach ache.”
Braxton: “That’s because without lactase to break it down, the lactose in dairy products gets fermented by bacteria in our gut and causes a lot of gas.”
Rashod, teasingly: “That’s too bad for you guys, guess it means more for me. Have you tried taking those pills people chew before eating ice cream?”
Braxton: “Those are just replacing the enzyme, lactase, so it helps with the gas and bloating. But that’s not the only reason I avoid milk. Actually, I don’t avoid ALL milk, just milk from cows and goats. I’m fine with soy or oat milk.”
Zane: “Why else would you not drink milk?”
Brainy Brooklyn overhears Zane’s question as she joins the guys by their cars: “I can give you lots of reasons.”
Braxton smiles when he sees his sister: “That’s right! It was a huge deal for Brooklyn. Cutting out dairy was a game changer!”
Brooklyn: “I had asthma so bad it was hard to exercise. But when I switched doctors a few years ago, the new one told me to cut out any food or drink with cow’s milk for a month to see if it had an effect. It was so dramatic, I said goodbye to the inhaler, and I haven’t had dairy products since.”
Zane: “Darn, that’s crazy. How did the doctor even know to try that?”
Brooklyn: “Turns out the protein in milk is one of the most common causes of food allergies. The immune system sees the protein as a foreign invader, the same way it sees viruses like the common cold, and this creates inflammation in the airways and other parts of the body.”
Brooklyn’s life changed drastically when she was able to play sports. She became the starting point guard on the women’s basketball team and played in college. As a bonus, she no longer experienced migraines, which had been a recurrent problem throughout her childhood. Experiencing the effects of food on her body, and the ability to reverse health issues with dietary choices, Brooklyn decided to start taking classes to prepare for a career in healthcare.
Braxton proudly points to the pink sweatbands on his wrists: “Tell ‘em about Aunt Mycah! The whole team wears these in October.”
Brooklyn reminds Zane and Rashod: “You know how October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month — well, our aunt had breast cancer a few years ago. And last year, when I was working in a research lab, I read a study funded by the National Cancer Institute. They found that women who consume more milk have a HIGHER RISK of getting breast cancer. Our aunt had been drinking two or three glasses of milk every day.”
Rashod interrupts: “It’s a good thing we don’t have breasts!”
Brooklyn: “First of all, men can get breast cancer too. But more importantly, dairy products are linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer.”
Zane: “What? How?”
Brooklyn: “Probably a mixture of growth factors and hormones in the milk, which were intended to help the calf grow from 60 pounds to 600 pounds in less than a year! Those same growth factors could stimulate cancer cells in humans, making tumors grow faster.”
Brooklyn adds: “Estrogen also plays a role in reproductive cancers. Most people don’t realize that cows have to get pregnant in order to make milk, just like other mammals, including humans. Estrogen rises during pregnancy to induce milk production – that way mammals have milk available for their offspring. But that estrogen also gets INTO the milk.”
Braxton: “Wouldn’t that mean estrogen is in foods that are MADE from milk like cheese and ice cream?”
Rashod interrupts, hoping to change the subject: “Do you all want to swing by the smoothie place on our way back to the apartment?”
Brooklyn: “I’m headed over to my aunt’s. You guys have fun!”
They say goodbye to Brooklyn, hop in their cars, and head to Sal’s Smoothie Shop. Brooklyn drives to her aunt’s house to visit her grandfather. He’s been living with his daughter, Mycah, since heart trouble forced him into early retirement. As she passes through the foyer, Brooklyn hears a group of women and waves to her aunt in the kitchen before walking out to the back porch.
Aunt Mycah hosts a support group for breast cancer survivors every week. They get together and try new recipes, sometimes even experimenting with non-dairy cheeses and ice creams to replace milk-based versions.
Aunt Mycah turns to the women standing around the kitchen island: “Everyone, meet our newest member, Annie! She has been in remission for a few months and wants to learn more about our dairy-free lifestyle.”
The women say hello and ask Annie the basics: “When were you diagnosed?” “What was your course of treatment?” and “Who was your surgeon?” Sensing Annie’s desire to change the subject, Charlotte interjects, describing a recent gathering where the group taste-tested a variety of plant milks — almond, oat, soy, cashew, hemp, rice, and macadamia milk.
Chic Charlotte: “We blindfolded each other and tried to guess which ones we were tasting – it was hilarious!”
Anxious Annie is well-dressed though her clothes hang loosely on her petite frame: “I’m so nervous about not drinking milk. Don’t you worry about calcium?”
Charlotte, excited to answer the question, turns to Annie: “I just remind myself cows don’t make calcium. It’s a mineral found in the earth and it’s absorbed into plants through their roots. We get calcium when we eat the plants – the same way cows do.”
Mycah adds to Charlotte’s reply: “And honestly, most of the cows don’t graze anymore, and they aren’t able to eat grass that absorbs the calcium from the ground. Instead the farmers add calcium supplements to their feed. If I think I’m not getting enough from my food, I just take a supplement like the cows did.”
Annie: “Wow, I never knew that! Let me get this straight. It’s in the earth, goes into the plants through their roots, gets eaten by the cow, gets absorbed into their bloodstream, passes into their milk when they are pregnant or lactating, and then it’s in the dairy products we eat or drink?”
Charlotte: “Yeah, so now I just take the direct route and eat plants to get the calcium.”
Annie: “Do some plants have more calcium than others?”
Mycah: “Leafy greens are rich in calcium along with beans, but there is calcium in all sorts of plant-based foods.”
Annie: “What about plant-based milks?”
Charlotte: “Many of them are fortified with calcium. The soy milk I use has 450 mg in a cup, which is even more than the 300 mg in a cup of cow’s milk.”
Annie: “Hmm, I thought we were supposed to avoid soy because of the estrogen.”
Just as Annie asks the question, Brooklyn walks into the kitchen.
Mycah: “Brooklyn, your timing is impeccable! I want you to meet Annie. Do you mind telling her – and reminding all of us – about soy and estrogen? You’re so good at explaining these things!”
Brooklyn: “Sure, Aunt Mycah. Annie, it’s nice to meet you.”
Annie: “You too. I was just asking your aunt about soy and estrogen. I’m surprised she uses soy milk after having breast cancer.”
Brooklyn: “You’re not alone. Many people are confused by this. The bottom line is that plants contain compounds called isoflavones that look like estrogen, but they’re not the same as estrogen. The cool thing is that they can bind to estrogen receptors in a good way.”
Annie: “What do you mean, ‘in a good way’?”
Brooklyn: “When the compounds in soy bind to the estrogen receptors, they protect AGAINST breast cancer and DECREASE the chances of the cancer coming back. And it’s not only soy milk, but also tofu, edamame, and other soy products.”
Charlotte chimes in: “Yeah, it’s helpful to have soy but harmful to have extra estrogen in our bodies. Not only do we get estrogen in dairy products, but fat cells make estrogen, so being overweight puts us at greater risk for getting cancer or having a recurrence.”
Annie: “What about when doctors give women hormone replacement during menopause to get rid of side effects like hot flashes? Didn’t they find it increases the risk of cancer?”
Brooklyn: “Totally. The pill contains estrogen from the urine of pregnant horses.”
At the smoothie shop, the guys stare at the menu on the wall behind the counter.
Rashod: “We better add some whey after today’s lift. It was beast!”
Braxton: “I’ll get my extra protein from the plant-based stuff. It’s totally legit.”
Zane, under his breath: “And the earth will thank you.”
Rashod: “What are you talking about?”
Zane: “You know, making choices that are good for the environment. Plants are better for your health AND for the planet.”
Braxton: “Yeah, whey is one of the proteins in cow’s milk. To get it, you have to raise the animals, get them pregnant, and then milk them when they start lactating. This uses a tremendous amount of land and water to raise the cows, and they produce a lot of greenhouse gases when they burp and fart. You can just use plant-based proteins that are much better for the environment and for you.”
Zane: “And those zits on your forehead might clear up, too. A couple months after I switched from whey to pea protein, my skin got much better.”
Rashod: “Really? Now you’ve got my attention.”